Insurer Takes on $182M Power Station Rehab

LANSING, MI-Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America, a for-profit subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, has agreed to lease 280,000 sf at the site of the shuttered Lansing Board of Water & Light’s Ottawa Street Station power plant. Local developer Christman Co. has reportedly purchased the property and will renovate the existing 10-story power plant, located along the Grand River, into class A office space, and will build a 120,000-sf office building that will attach to the former plant structure. A 1,000-car parking deck is also planned. The total cost of the project is expected to be about $182 million.

The city has been looking for a user for the site since the 67-year-old, coal-to-steam generation plant was decommissioned in 1992. The equipment in the plant was removed in the early 1990s. The state asked for proposals in June 2006, with plans for a mixed-use office project for the 7-acre site.